Group Airs Ills of Arts Alliance

In a wide-ranging discussion Monday about the future direction of the Orange County Arts Alliance, which has suspended operations while it tries to find its bearings, a blue-ribbon panel of arts and community leaders assailed county politicians and educators for paying little more than lip service to the arts.

Panelists agreed that the alliance, created in 1980 by the Board of Supervisors, must determine, among other things, whether it should be an advocacy or a service-oriented organization; whether it should lobby for emerging arts groups or for large institutions, and what its obligation is to individual artists.

Kevin Consey, executive director of the Newport Harbor Art Museum, articulated what seemed to be a consensus when he said he “can detect no commitment to the arts from educational institutions nor from county government.”

Consey cited, for example a virtual absence of feedback from school officials for student programs the museum has mounted.

Underscoring his point, two of the politicians on the panel were absent from the meeting, held at a law office in Newport Beach.

The panel identified other key issues, such as the need for supporting ethnic arts groups, and wondered what to do, if anything, about encouraging art in public places.